Cleaning a turkey without waste

[BLS700]

I'll be going turkey hunting for the first time this year and I'm real excited about it. The problem is I've never cleaned a bird. I've seen and been a part of fileting the breast but I don't want to waste that much of an animal. My friend says he doesn't take the rest because the legs on wild turkey are too tough. I'm not really a leg person but I hate to waste meat. Anybody know a website that has video of how to properly clean a turkey and use as much as possible?

[hoghunting]

I've taken the legs and wings and put them in a pressure cooker to try to tenderize them enough to eat. It took about 9 hours and there wasn't any flavor left in the meat. It was quite a bit of work for very disappointing results. Now I take the breast and let the coyotes and hogs have the rest.

[kraigwy]

I dont know where your friend gets turkeys but here they are tasty, you get a young one you cant tell them from store bought.

How I do it, is cut the head off, Then cut the skin from the V where its ribs come together, down to its butt. Then reach in and pull all the guts out. They are relatively easy to clean. Just pull out everything you dont want to eat.

Plucking then is a differant matter, its a pain in the Tail. I skin them then cook them in one of those deep turkey fryers.

They are quite good and easy to clean and skin.

Good luck in your hunt.

[BLS700]

So that's one vote in favor of just taking the breast. What do the rest of you turkey hunters out there do? If I'm just using the breast does it still need to be gutted in the field or can it wait until I get home and just filet the meat off?

[Mavrik]

I'm relatively new into turkey hunting, and frankly not that good at it. It's mainly an excuse to get myself out into the woods in the fall (prefer fall season when both sexes are legal).

Anyway a couple of years back I managed to get two turkeys in the season one jake and one was a gobbler that after gutting, plucking, removal of head and legs (keeping the drumsticks) weighed 17lbs at time of cooking.

Per my wife's orders I ended up gutting and plucking them (had to have the skin on if she was going to cook one for thanksgiving). Given that it was the first time I, or any of my family, had eaten wild turkey I was a bit worried about how it might be. Basically we just roasted it the same way as we did a storebought turkey and it was really good. I certainly don't remember any being dry or tough. The same was true for the smaller Jake we cooked sometime later.

Ironically the only thing that didn't come out well was the skin that my wife originally demanded I leave, which makes it easier for me since if I ever get another I'm now allowed to just skin it.

From my admittedly limited experience I don't see any reason for just taking the breast since I couldn't really find fault with anything other than the skin on my two cooked birds. Admittedly there might be differences in how they turn out depending on where a person is due to habitat/diet/etc.

One of these days I'll get another one I hope.

Mavrik

[Quickdraw Limpsalot]

I usually cut both halves of breast off the bone, then cut off each thigh/leg piece from the rest of the carcass. I throw the thighs/legs into a crock pot for about 7 hours or so and they come out quite tasty. There are a lot of splinter-like bones in the drumsticks, but it's worth the extra work IMO.

[GE-Minigun]

Boiling water...skin and feathers comes off like a glove...toss into deep fryer 45-50 minutes (15-17 lbs bird)...enjoy

[bejay]

I also just carve off the breast and cut off the legs there isnt much left after removing these.
if its a young bird the thighs are usually tender the drum stick will usually be tough but can be slow cooked.

[hogdogs]

GE-minigun, Anytime you mention water and deepfryin' in the same paragraph you might oughta also mention to THOROUGHLY dry to avoid a splatter induced fire... Not everyone has experience with frying at 350 degrees I loves me a fryed turkey! Hey if you are gonna fry may as well cut up a dozen pounds of sweet taters into wedges before the bird. They won't likely last long.
Brent

[publius]

double post

[publius]

Do the breast as others have said but keep those LEGS. Put in a pressure cooker w/some onion an water of course. remove from cooker and take the meat off the bone in bite size pieces. Put in a chicken/squirrel/duck gumbo. Anyone want my gumbo recipe let me know.